


The Saba Tank

by cheshireree (shyfoxes)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Companionable Snark, Developing Friendships, Gen, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 06:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shyfoxes/pseuds/cheshireree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru and Sousuke open up a restaurant together and work on their friendship. They also choose a god-awful name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Saba Tank

Haru supposed there were worse things that could have happened after he decided he had gotten everything he wanted on the Japanese Olympic Team. He had retired at 25 and returned to Iwatobi with a few gold medals under his belt, and later under his bed. Haru had been mostly content to go back to his childhood home and idle in his bathtub, cooking mackerel day and night, and feeding Makoto’s hoards of cats. The lack of content came when Sousuke showed up on his doorstep, looking a bit disheveled with a scowl on his face. Haru mused that he had probably gotten lost on his way here. Sousuke’s sheepish look just about confirmed it.

“Rin made me come over,” Sousuke said as way of greeting.

Haru’s eyes narrowed, because there was no way Rin wasn’t meddling in this if Sousuke had to make it from Sano to Iwatobi _on his own_. Haru let him in just the same. Truth be told, he hadn’t seen Sousuke for a good little while now. He’d gone to Rin and Haru’s first Olympics a couple years back, cheering them on until his voice had gone hoarse. Hell, Haru could remember seeing Sousuke crying right beside Makoto, Rei, Nagisa, and Gou, when he and Rin had stepped up on the podium to collect their gold medals. Rin had been crying as he tried to make fun of Sousuke who had also been crying. The picture of both of them trying to outdo each other, with tears streaming down their face was still buried somewhere in Haru’s photo album. He had attended as many competitions as he could years, later. No doubt he was probably going to go and see Rin compete in the upcoming Olympics, too.

Haru looked at Sousuke’s back as he followed him into the living room  gently muttering directions to him behind him. He had grown a little bit more since high school, but had lost a pretty good amount of muscle mass. He could still probably bench press Haru if Haru wasn’t worried his shoulder would pop out of the socket.

Sousuke sat down at Haru’s low table and dropped his hands into his lap. Haru sat down before him on the other side. They sat in silence for a few minutes; Sousuke gathering his thoughts, and Haru finishing off his tea.

“Rin told me to come over and bother you a bit,” Sousuke mumbled. “He said, ‘You’re living the closest to Haru right now, so go make sure he doesn’t get lazy’. Or something.”

Haru scowled. “Tell Rin when he gets more gold medals than me, then he can talk.”

Sousuke snickered, then, pulling out his phone. He thumbed off a message before silencing his phone, and then pocketing it. Sousuke rested his forearms on the table as he considered his next words.

“Actually, he also had something good to say. He’d actually mentioned it a long time ago back in high school, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Sousuke muttered.

Haru raised a brow. He got a slight feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

“I majored in culinary in college. You know that right?” Sousuke asked; Haru nodded. He actually did. “But I’ve actually just been working for someone in town for the last few years. Rin suggested its time I opened my own already.”

“You should,” Haru said. “I’ve had your cooking. It’s not – bad.”

“Not bad?” Sousuke repeated, scoffing. “What’s missing?”

“Mackerel,” Haru said, simply.

Sousuke rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, that’s the real reason I’m here. I wanted to go ahead and try – and I want you to run it with me,” Sousuke said, finishing awkwardly.

Haru laid his cheek in his hand as he regarded the other man. Sousuke fidgeted a bit, though his resting frown was still present on his face. Haru let himself consider it. Sousuke wasn’t an undependable guy, to say the least. If something was to be done, and a certain workload to be had, Sousuke would shoulder it. That much Haru had no worries for.

But then again, he and Sousuke may have let their pasts go, but they hadn’t grown as close as Makoto and Rin probably would have liked. Haru glanced at Sousuke again, sitting in his living room. They had grown close enough, Haru supposed. Cooking didn’t sound that bothersome, if it meant a chance to do all the mackerel dishes he’d always wanted to try. He doubted Sousuke wanted to move it to a big city, so he’d get to stay home to say the least. He wrinkled his nose; he had never really liked cities to begin with. Sousuke was a decent enough chef, too. Better than Makoto at least. If anything, he could probably teach the other man how to make a good mackerel dish now.

“So?” Sousuke prompted, when all Haru did was watch him quietly.

“Yes,” Haru said, simply. “I’ll open a restaurant with you.”

Sousuke smiled, uncharacteristically shy for a split moment. Haru couldn’t help smiling himself, mostly amused. Sousuke nodded quietly to himself, hands tapping on the hard wood of the table.

“Good, good. We’ll go in fifty-fifty. When do you want t start looking for a place to get started?” Sousuke said.

Haru blinked; Right, a location. He bit back an exasperated sigh. Sooner was probably better, and he told Sousuke as much. Sousuke nodded in quiet agreement.

“Tomorrow then?” Sousuke asked, rising to his feet.

“Tomorrow,” Haru confirmed.

He stood up, too, pushing at Sousuke’s shoulder to get him to sit back down. He stopped at the doorway to look over his shoulder with a wry grin.

“You might as well stay, since you made it all the way here. We can eat dinner,” Haru said. Then he pointed at Sousuke’s pocket. “You should probably check that he hasn’t flooded your inbox.”

Sousuke groaned, pressing his forehead to the table. He reluctantly fished out his phone, but didn’t unlock it immediately.

“You owe me for this, Haruka,” Sousuke grumbled.

“Rin is _your_ best friend,” Haru said with a shrug. Then headed back into the kitchen to start up begin cooking. Somewhere behind him, he could hear muffled tinny yelling, probably Rin, and Sousuke’s exasperated mumbling.

-

Surprisingly, it was easier to find a place to rent out than Haru had imagined. It might have had a little bit to do with Haru’s title as a well known Olympic swimmer. But Sousuke wasn’t saying anything, to Haru’s relief. Despite his own quiet pride at the fact, he still hated to have it blared around. One of the regrets he had had about his time on the team was his lack of privacy. It was one reason he had been so desperate to come back home again. Sousuke hadn’t batted much of an eyelash at it. But he had side-stepped a couple times between Haru and some over-eager fans. His large frame had a tendency to dwarf Haru’s own, as he cut whomever off and refocused them back on the conversation path or shut them down entirely.

By the afternoon, they had narrowed their choices down to three options: A recently closed ramen shop in Sano (which was not very far from Sousuke’s family’s flower shop), an empty unit in a newly built outlet mall in Iwatobi, and an old rundown shop by the beach near Samezuka. Haruka had seriously considered the rundown place before Sousuke had throw the photographs of the place at Haru’s face and promptly told him no.

Two places, then.

Haru hadn’t much liked the outlet mall, unit. He had gotten a sleazy feel from the man advertising it, and it felt too claustrophobic to Haru. He had stolen a glance at Sousuke when they had visited and sensed the same feeling in him. He brushed aside the unit’s photographs and placed the ramen shop down in front of Sousuke.

“Do your parents like mackerel?” Haru asked, jokingly.

Sousuke looked pleased at the result before scowling terribly at Haru.  He raised his shoulders up tensely, looking petulant and childish with his scowl all at once. Haru’s wry smirk only grew.

“Don’t you dare taint my parents, Nanase,” Sousuke said.  

Haru had to scoff. How had he ever been intimidated by Sousuke? Honestly, he was about as terrifying as a lap dog now that he was getting a good look at him. He reached out and ruffled Sousuke’s hair, making sure his bangs were sticking up in all directions. Sousuke batted his hand away.

“Don’t pet me!” He groused.

-

Haru was starting to rethink this whole partnership thing. There was no way he could possibly go into business with Sousuke if he kept contesting mackerel at every turn. First they argued about what to put on the menu (mackerel being Haru’s choice, and pork being Sousuke’s). Then they argued about naming.

“We are not calling it Mr. Saba, Haruka,” Sousuke said.

“Shark Tank is nowhere near good enough, either, Sousuke,” Haru said, seething.

“It’s better than Mr. Saba! Fine, what else did you have in mind?” Sousuke said.

He picked up Haru’s clipboard and ran through the names he had scribbled down, each one making him scowl harder and harder the farther down he went. Haru could already guess what he had to say. Mr. Saba was his first choice, but he had seriously considered “Saba Falls” to be a good second. Haru glanced down at the other names Sousuke had to offer and scoffed himself. “Shark’s Nest” and “Pork Stop”. How ungodly could one get?

Sousuke pinched the bridge of his nose, throwing aside the clipboard as Haru glared at him. They sat at a stand still for a while before Sousuke could finally speak. He gave Haru a side long glance before finally speaking.

“Let’s split the name thing down the middle. We’ll take half of each name and make it into one,” Sousuke suggested.

Haru raised his eyebrows in surprise. He looked down at each name for a moment before he was scribbling the names down together.

“Mr. Tank? Shark Saba? Saba Tank?” Haru read off. Sousuke pointed a finger at the last name, and Haru nodded. “Saba Tank, then. Not as good as mine, but it’ll do.”

Sousuke glared at him, but set to writing it down on the papers. They’d have to get the title of the business in order from the previous owner before moving on to all the cosmetics they wanted. Haru had already began sketching out ideas for how they were going do the place. If the giant standing Iwatobi mascot was anything to go by, Sousuke and Haru were going to be fighting for quite some time.

“We’re not putting your high school mascot in the restaurant,” Sousuke said before he could stop himself.

“And why not?”

“Because we’re in _Sano,_ ” Sousuke said. “Leave that creepy thing in Iwatobi.”

“There’s nothing creepy about Iwatobi-chan, _Yamazaki_ ,” Haru indignantly replied. He shoved the sketchbook closer to Sousuke’s face just to prove his point. “He’s cute. Everyone will love him.”

“Or we’ll get sued for copyright infringement,” Sousuke muttered.

Haru pursed his lips, taking his sketchbook up without any further words as he left Sousuke at his low table and headed somewhere else in his house to brood. Sousuke watched him, getting more and more ticked the farther away Haruka got.

“We’re not using the damn mascot!” Sousuke called after him.

His only answer was the slamming of a door somewhere in the house as Sousuke buried his head in his hands, exhaling loudly. He was going to give Rin so much grief for leaving the two of them unattended like this.

-

It took nearly a month to get everything in order, the renovations, the sign, the menus (and not without its brief warfare either), and the tables and chairs. They settled on a mutual seaside theme, with Haru heading much of the painting himself. Sousuke had twisted his face up a few times when Haru had told him he planned to paint a school of mackerel swimming in the background of a mermaid that looked a bit suspiciously like Gou, combing her hair with her fingers in a large silvery clam. It was beautiful to say the least, despite Haru’s own unique twists. Sousuke briefly wondered how Rin might reaction to Haru’s mermaid.

Haru had to smirk to himself a few times, though, because he had yet to notice the tiny little Iwatobi-chans he’d painted all around the restaurant. Some of them were even painfully glaring right at him.  Each time Sousuke’s back was turned, Haru blended a little Iwatobi mascot into his growing mural as Sousuke committed to scrubbing the place clean.

It was just the two of them for the moment, and they’d spent nearly every day trying to get everything ready for the first of the next month. Sousuke looked over his shoulder too quickly for Haru to recover quickly enough from his mischief.

“Haruka,” Sousuke started. “How do you want the tables and chairs arranged?”

Haru schooled his face back into its neutral resting position as he took a quick glance around the dining area. It was fairly big, at least able to hold a decent amount of people that it wouldn’t annoy Haru with a crowd. If there was one thing he and Sousuke agreed on, it was their mutual dislike of crowds all things considering.

“Spread out enough that you can walk around when you’re filling orders,” Haru replied. “Tilt the tables at an angle. No more than two or three chairs to the little tables. The big ones stay at the corners when the paint dries.”

“That sounds fi - wait a minute,” Sousuke realized. “What do you mean when _I_ fill orders?”

Haru looked at him pointedly. “Are you not going to be the waiter?”

“ _No._ You are,” Sousuke said.

Haru vehemently shook his head. He glared across the room at Sousuke, holding his paintbrush up a little menacingly. “You are.”

“Don’t play with me, Haruka. You’re going to be the waiter. I’m manning the kitchen. There are other things on that menu besides saba.”

“Only if they’re more popular that what I give them,” Haru said, getting indignant. He puffed his cheeks up a bit, watching as Sousuke dug his fists into his hip bones and didn’t budge. Haru scoffed, turning slightly back to his work as he tilted his chin up. “You should respect your elders more, Yamazaki.”

Sousuke threw his hands up in exasperation. “Four months, Haruka! Just four months!”

Haruka shrugged from where he was, listening in to Sousuke’s mutterings as he loudly continued cleaning when he realized there would be no more arguing with him. He chanced a glance over his shoulder, biting back a laugh when he saw Sousuke pouting childishly as he scrubbed the table tops. He flickered his gaze to Sousuke’s shoulder for a moment as he turned back.

He made sure his voice would drift over easily to his companion, tone neutral and matter-of-fact.

“Don’t overexert yourself, Sousuke. Be mindful of your shoulder,” He warned.

The scrubbing lessened in intensity, and a faint grumbling came from his companion. Sousuke exhaled noisily through his noise. He sloshed some water onto the next table, Haru was guessing, not turning back to look.

“I won’t,” Sousuke said, quietly. “Thanks.”

Haru only hummed.

-

“There’s no one here again,” Sousuke muttered. “I’d thought we’d get at least one or two people popping in to see what we have.”

Sousuke leaned out on the counter that separated the kitchen from the tables. Haru leaned on the counters a little ways away, cheeks cushioned against his palms as he stared straight ahead as well. Sousuke heaved a sigh beside him. Haru shrugged, though he was put off. A thought popped into his head but he hesitated to voice it.

“Maybe we could redo the flyers,” He suggested. “Maybe, I could put my name -”

“No way,” Sousuke cut off firmly. “It would get us customers but you’d have even less privacy when word gets out. We’ll just endure it. Dad said things were slow in the beginning for them, too.”

Sousuke pulled off his apron and picked up the remaining flyers that sat behind the counter, jamming them under his arm as he pocketed a roll of tape. He cast a glance at Haru for a moment.

“I’ll go put up some more and you be prepared for anyone who comes in while I’m gone,” He said.

Haru nodded, secretly relieved that Sousuke hadn’t latched onto the idea of plastering his name to make  things easier. Not that he thought Sousuke would have in the first place, anyway. He had been rather good this whole time about making sure no one bothered Haru about his celebrity status. He furrowed his brows as he watched Sousuke exit the restaurant and then head left, a new dread rising up in him. He really shouldn’t have let him go off alone.

-

Sousuke was just about to put up the last flyer when his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He quickly taped on the last flyer hastily as he fished out his phone. He unlocked it and answered.

“Hello?” He said, a little too gruffly. He balanced the phone on his left shoulder, neck put in a painful position as he finished taping the last flyer up properly. A long suffering sigh came out over the phone.

“Sousuke, we have a customer,” Haru replied. Something about his tone seemed a tad bit irritable.

Sousuke’s eyes widened and he straightened up to hold the phone better. Haru mumbled something to who he presumed was the customer and they joyfully answered back. Haru sighed a little quietly again on the phone.

“That’s great. That’s good! That’s just what we need. I’m heading back right now, hang on,” Sousuke quickly stated, turning around to head back.

“No!” Haru cut off. “You stay where you are. I’ll come get you.”

“Haruka -”

“If I trust you to come back on your own, I’ll end up running this place alone. Your parents might never forgive me for letting you wander off to god knows where,” Haru continued.

“Haruka! Shut up, I’m not that bad. I’ve lived here my whole life,” Sousuke argued. “I can get back there just fine.”

“Rin’s going to cry all over me if I don’t,” Haru shot back; there was almost a sneer in his tone. Sousuke admitted defeat realizing he wasn’t going to win.

“Fine. Just – apologize to the customer for running out on them. You cooked for them first right?” Sousuke said.

“I did,” Haru replied. “Tell me where you are, then we can come back quick.”

Sousuke craned his neck, looking around quickly. “By the arcade not too far away. Just look for the big rabbit that says Yamato’s.”

“Right. I’ll be there, then.”

-

It took all of ten minutes for Haru to joh his way to where Sousuke was impatiently waiting. Haru didn’t bother telling him that he had taken a wrong turn and gotten a little lost himself before finally spotting Sousuke’s tall frame rather than the rabbit. It took a good few more minutes for them to return to the restaurant, Sousuke quipping that Haru was dreadfully slow on land for someone so powerful in the water. He joked with a vicious grin that he was probably going to start making Haru jog the entire way to and from the restaurant when they came.

Sousuke nearly slammed his shoulder on the door as he hurried into the restaurant, a greeting already leaving his tongue as he entered. He stopped mid-sentence when he realized just who was sitting there as Haru came up behind him. Sousuke had to suppress a groan.

“Kisumi. What are you doing here?” Sousuke asked.

Kisumi grinned good-naturedly, waving a hand back in greeting. “Yohoo, Sousuke! I happened to pass by your parents shop when they said you and Haru had set up shop.” Kisumi petted the hair of a shorter boy looking up with wide eyes at them. Sousuke hadn’t noticed him until just then. “Hayato wanted us to spend the day together, I thought this would definitely be the best place.”

A bit of shame passed through the both of them, as Hayato, much bigger now than Sousuke had remembered, probably pushing thirteen, grinned sheepishly at them. He looked at Sousuke first, greeting him as “Sousuke-nii”. Sousuke awkwardly returned the greeting. Hayato’s eyes landed on Haru next; he fidgeted.

“Nanase-san,” Hayato began. “Do you mind if I ask for an autograph?”

Haru was taken aback to say the least. Kisumi ruffled Hayato’s hair, pushing his food further towards him. He had always been a very attentive brother, Sousuke remembered. It was one thing he had always admired about him, despite how annoying he may have also found him some of the time. Still, the fact that Kisumi had chosen to spend the time he had in Sano at their place was heart-warming at best. Kisumi lived permanently in Tokyo now, moving there for college a few years back.

“Haru won’t mind too much, will you, Haru? Hayato is a big fan of yours. He was excited to learn that Tachibana-sensei who taught him to love swimming was best friends with _the_ Haruka Nanase, olympic gold medalist,” Kisumi said. He beamed proudly at his brother. “Actually, he thinks he might want to try for the national team one day, too.”

Sousuke let a proud, gentle smile of his own pass his face. He glanced over at Haru who was staring between them with wide eyes. Sousuke softly touched him on the shoulder, a wry but reassuring grin on his face. Haru seemed to breathe a little easier, blinking twice. He tilted his head down just a bit. Sousuke wasn’t Makoto, but he had an inkling that he was truly caught off guard by the emotion of it all. Perhaps he just had not thought he was such a hero to someone. Especially someone so close to home. He turned back to Hayato.

“Of course,” Haru said, voice surprisingly steady. “Finish your meal first. How’s the food?”

Hayato beamed, taking up his chopsticks again as he picked up a piece. Kisumi cradled a cheek on his palm. Sousuke went around him to slip back on his apron, and asking Kisumi if he needed a refill on his drink in a joking tone.

“It’s really good! Is it true you made to where you are because you only ate nothing but mackerel?” Hayato told him. “You cook really well, Nanase-san.”

Haru ignored Sousuke’s grimace and preened with pride. He fished out the notepad from Sousuke’s apron and took the pen from his breast pocket. He quickly scribbled out his name and the words “To Hayato” just under it. He tore it off and handed it to Kisumi for safe keeping.

“Mackerel is the secret to success,” He said, simply. Sousuke groaned in agony beside him.

-

“Here, this is for you,” Haru said, one day when they were about to open up shop.

He held out something that had a key ring dangling from the top of its head. Sousuke looked at it quizzically. Haru dropped it in his hand and went back to mopping up the floors. Sousuke groaned, realizing exactly what it was.

“What is with you and this damn thing?” Sousuke muttered.

Haru shot him a look. “You’re my friend. I made it for you,” Haru muttered back. “It has your name on it.”

Sousuke turned it over in his hands, spotting the delicate carving of the characters for his name on the side of the thing’s wing. Sousuke sighed a little too hard before pulling out his house keys and fumbling with his big fingers to get the damn thing on. Haru took pity on him eventually and did it for him. Sousuke held the keys up, the Iwatobi mascot dangling in the air between them.

“Happy now?” Sousuke said.

Haru held up his own matching charm on his own keys, nodding with an almost grin. Sousuke shook his head. He moved to start placing the chairs where Haru had already finished cleaning. He pushed them in up against the tables.

“I hope this is the last I have to see of this thing,” Sousuke said.

Haru had to suppress a laugh. When he passed by Sousuke to collect the bucket of water to dip the mop in again, he petted Sousuke on the top of the head again for good measure. 

“You’re too grump for your age,” Haru joked.

“I told you to quit it!”

-

Makoto and Rin came down another month later. In that time, Kisumi had spread the word around Sano about the Saba Tank, having kept Sousuke’s words about omitting Haru’s status out of it. They’d acquired a good number of customers and regulars by then. The enjoyed various states of lulls and lunch time rushes as time went by. Sousuke had been so awkward at first, hastily blurting out what they wanted to eat. Haru had peeked through the doors and watched the uncomfortable glances on the customer’s faces as Sousuke filled their orders, a little too stoic. He supposed Rin or Makoto might have scolded him, but Haru personally thought he had done just fine.

There were times that Haru had Sousuke double as a waiter and a fellow chef to get things done. There were other times that he’d worried himself silly when a lunch time rush came and he feared that Sousuke was neglecting his workouts (sometimes hinted by Rin) and forced him to stay in the kitchen to take over for a bit, while he braved the dining area. 

Haru had surprised a good number of people when he’d come out and mumbled a “How may I serve you today?”. He’d had to repeat himself a good number of times, but he’d gotten through mostly fine, if not just a tad bit irritable. When he deemed Sousuke rested enough, he forced him back out of the kitchen. He sent him off with a mild thank you for his efforts out there.

Rin and Makoto arrived during a lull. The bell over the door jingled as they came in, easily chatting between themselves as they settled at the table closest to the counter. Sousuke was the first to emerge from the kitchen, flipping through his notepad and not looking up until he’d gotten to the table. He spotted a familiar brand of sneakers and then looked up hastily.

“Rin!” He said, grinning. He glanced over at Makoto as he waved a little at Sousuke. Sousuke grinned at him, too. “Makoto.”

Haru poked his head out the moment Sousuke had said Makoto’s name. He popped up on Sousuke’s side, looking at their two friends with a furrowed brow. Makoto smiled a little sheepishly as Rin dug a fist into Sousuke’s gut with a loud laugh.

“What are you two doing here?” Haru asked. He addressed Rin. “Shouldn’t you be training?” He turned to Makoto. “You didn’t text me you’d be coming.”

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” Makoto explained. “Kisumi said you guys have been doing good, so we thought we’d come and see for ourselves.”

“We also wanted to make sure Kisumi wasn’t lying to cover up the fact that you two killed each other,” Rin joked. “Which one of you chose that god-awful name for this place?

Haru huffed, elbowing Sousuke in the side as he cast a betrayed look at both of their friends. He looked up at Sousuke with a conspiratory look. Sousuke raised a brow, a grin twitching at his lips.

“Do you see how little faith they have in us?” Haru remarked. “We did just fine without them babying us.”

“I know. It’s almost like they think we can’t do anything without them. What are they? Our moms?” Sousuke replied back. He turned to fully face Haru, the both of them pretending that Makoto and Rin weren’t there.

“Ridiculous. They even insulted the name.They don’t deserve a meal,” Haru said.

“Absolutely not. They’ll have to cook it themselves. We can get better business from more loyal customers.”

“Hey!” Rin cut in.

“Haru, Sousuke, really, we didn’t -”

“Makoto burns everything he tries to cook. How hasn’t he starved by now, I wonder?” Haru said.

Sousuke laughed, catching Makoto’s mortified expression at the corner of his eye. Rin patted his friend on the shoulder, muttering about how he shouldn’t take their tantrums to heart. Sousuke snorted and put his hands on his hips.

“Rin’s worse, I bet. He gets lazy despite what he says. His coach is probably the only one saving him from nutritional ruin,” Sousuke added in.

“That’s uncalled for!” Rin cried.

Sousuke tapped Haru on the shoulder, motioning for them to head to the kitchen. Haru nodded, bumping against Sousuke’s side as Sousuke slung an arm around him, arm hanging around his neck as they returned back to the kitchen. Rin fumed behind them.

“Haru! Sousuke! You get back here and apologize to Makoto!” Rin exclaimed. “I can totally manage my own meals! Sousuke! Haru!”

Haru snickered under his breath, turning on the stove to heat up the frying pan as Sousuke retrieved some eggs and rice from the fridge. A good old-fashioned omurice shouldn’t take too long to make, while their two friends stewed out there. Sousuke cracked the eggs on the counter next to Haru as Haru set to chopping up the vegetables. Sousuke reached up for the ketchup when Haru glanced up at the cupboard, silently accepting it without any real thought. It had become something of a routine anyway. Haru glanced down to the see the head of an Iwatobi-chan keychain he’d whittled for Sousuke peeking out from his apron.

“You cook much better than before now,” Haru said, softly. “Mackerel is coming along okay.”

“Your tonkatsu’s not bad either. I dare say I prefer it even over my own mother’s. Congratulations, Haruka,” Sousuke joked.

Haru elbowed him in the side again, smiling a tiny bit to himself. Sousuke removed the egg whites and whipped up the eggs before passing it to Haru. He went to take care of the rice. Haru poured the egg into the frying pan, the hiss of it hitting the metal filling up the quiet of the kitchen.

“Remember to take your vitamins when you go home. They say the flu is going to be bad this year,” Sousuke added in.

Haru nodded absently; “Take it easy when the cold weather comes. Its going to bother your shoulder.”

Sousuke made an agreeing noise. He scraped some of the rice into the pan, moving away as Haru began to fold the egg over it, sealing it up. Sousuke accepted the first one on a plate as Haru went to make the other one. Sousuke wrote out Makoto’s name in ketchup as Haru set to finished the last on. Sousuke pushed the plate aside to take the next plate and write out Rin’s name, too. Haru turrned off the stove.

“Good work, Haruka,” Sousuke, taking up both plates in his hands.

Haruka smiled a bit; “Just don’t drop it, Sousuke. We’ll never hear the end of it if Rin starts crying.”

Sousuke rolled his eyes but agreed, pushing the door open with his back as Haru followed behind him. Makoto and Rin’s surprised squawks were worth it. Haru settled next to Sousuke against the counter as Makoto and Rin dug into their food. Sousuke squinted his eyes, spotting something a little far ways a way on the wall.

“Haruka, what’s that thing on the wall? It looks familiar,” Sousuke asked. Haru suppressed a smug twitch of the lips as he shrugged.

“You’re seeing things,” Haru said.

Rin held up his plate, about to demand more when he zeroed in on the image on the wall adjacent to where Sousuke and Haru were standing. He narrowed his eyes and scowled as he looked back between the two men.

“Why the hell is Gou on your wall?” Rin cried.  “What the hell are you doing painting my sister?”

Haru didn’t have the heart to tell him that he had actually painted the merrmaid with Rin in mind for shits and giggles before he realized the younger Matsuoka sibling would fit the mural better.

**Author's Note:**

> original here--> http://cheshire-ree.tumblr.com/post/141532959153/the-saba-tank
> 
> Haru is older than Sousuke by about 4 months so I thought that’d be a thing he’d kind of tease Sousuke over for shits and giggles. I just wanted Sousuke and Haru to be little shits at each other and build a friendship. There’s a doujin by Kangaroo Kick/Takagi Takumi that has a chef Haru and Sousuke for what I think is the IwaSame cafe working together. leninmeringuepie had suggested “Mr. Saba” at one point and I thought, “damn that is exactly what Haru would name it if he had the chance”. Several terrible names later, they still settled on a terrible name, but a mutual one at least. Thus, “The Saba Tank (Mr. Saba x Shark Tank) ” was born. For the record, Makoto had suggested Iwasame, but welp. rinchansanmatsuoka helped me with the final pull thru as well.
> 
> Its meant to be platonic SouHaru, because I really wish S2 had done more to promote a Sousuke & Haru friendship (tho ep 14 was great). They’re so similar in personality there’s no reason they wouldn’t get along. They’d be so salty together, and such little shits. They’d tease the shit out of Rin, its perfect.


End file.
